The Economist has a piece it has made public (no registration required to view) on the likelihood the Government will try to get Britain into the Euro zone starting in May next year. As a euro-phile I am encouraged at its optimism, although I felt it was perhaps trying a little hard to see the bright side. After all, even if the Government strongly backed joining, the poll they quote suggests the balance of opinion against joining would still be 8%.

If you aren’t already tired of reading about Lord of the Rings, I just found a bit of spoof science about how the ring of power might be constructed. Here is a sample:

the Ring looks and feels like gold, but isn’t. The heat of an ordinary fire can’t melt it, although it does cause some glowing letters to appear. To destroy the Ring, you have to throw it into the boiling magma of Mount Doom, which from its description is probably at least 2,000 degrees Celsius. This leads me to believe that the ring is in fact made of silicon (melting point 1,410C), whose surface propertiesas discussed in “The Heart of the (Programmable) Matter”can be dramatically altered through the use of tiny electronic components called quantum dots. In this case, the quantum dots each contain 79 electrons, and behave optically and electrically as though they were atoms of gold. Some of the dots also emit light when excited thermally, which is perfectly consistent with their design and function.

A UK Government scheme to hand out recycled computers to unemployed people has collapsed. It is rather sad to see this as it is a good idea which appears to have been let down by a lack of coordination. It is ridiculous that in some areas including Sheffield “unemployed people receiving the computers had to pay a £1-a-minute help line for advice on how to use the technology, on top of £60 for the basic equipment”.

And apparently, “Suppliers have to buy new operating system licences before they can legally resell machines, but they were not able to qualify for favourable rates under Microsoft’s authorised reseller arrangements as the computers were being sold to individuals.” I would have thought a little government pressure on Microsoft could have changed this?